August 26, 2011

Hometown Heroes: Bainbridge Islanders

August 6, 2011 Memorial Dedication Celebration
Photo credit Clarence Moriwaki
 

August 6, 2011 Memorial Dedication Celebration 
Photo credit Clarence Moriwaki

Hometown Heroes:  Bainbridge Islanders
SUSAN CLOKE
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror
August 26, 2011

An hour in a day, dedicated to celebrating a story that started in WWII, healing old wounds and honoring an honorable community.  In 1942 Bainbridge Island, Washington, had a population of about 1500 full time residents. 276 were Americans of Japanese descent.

These 276 people were farmers, business people, neighbors and friends.  They were grandparents, fathers and mothers, children and babies.  Their lives changed forever on March 23, 1942 when Civilian Exclusion Order #1, issued by the Western Defense Command, required all Bainbridge Islanders of Japanese descent to be sent to Manzanar Relocation Camp.  They were given six days to be ready to leave.

On March 30, 1942 the Bainbridge Island Japanese-Americans were required by law to get on the ferry at Eagledale Harbor for their connection to the train and then the bus that would take them to Manzanar in California.

Today, at Pritchard Park on Eagledale Harbor, the site where the Japanese-American Bainbridge Islanders were forced to leave the Island, there is a Memorial Wall and Garden and it is now a National Historic Site.  The park and the memorial are the work of many local citizens, supported by grants from the state, by public grants, and by several thousand private donations. 

More than 500 members of the local community came together on August 6, 2011 to celebrate the dedication of the memorial and to honor the Japanese-American Bainbridge Islanders.  Clarence Moriwaki, a Board Member of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association, welcomed people and explained the Memorial Association’s motto, “Nidoto Nai Yoni."  "Let it not happen again.”

The day was sunny, skies were clear and there was a slight breeze.  On the front of the podium were the words of the Pledge of Allegiance.  Behind the speakers’ platform were the tall firs of the North West Cloud Forest.   The speakers could see out, over the assembled crowd to the path to the ferry walked by the internees so many years ago, under the guard of armed soldiers.

Dr. Frank Kitamoto, a Board Member of the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion Memorial Association, also a member of the 1941 graduating class of Bainbridge High School, shared his memories of that time.  “We sold our family farm for $1.00 to friends and when, after the war, we were allowed to return, they sold it back to us for $1.00.  With the help of our friends and neighbors we were able to return to the farm and the life that my family had worked so hard to create.  We appreciate you.  We appreciate a government that works to right a grave wrong.  How special is a government that makes restitution for its mistakes.”

On the makeshift dais with Frank Kitamoto was Earl Hanson, also in the class of ’41.  He had come to Eagledale Harbor that long ago day to say good-bye to his best friend.  But the soldiers wouldn’t allow it.  He remembered the soldiers, with bayonets fixed to their rifles, making him and all the Islanders who had come to say goodbye, stand far away from their departing friends.  Mr. Hanson served in the military and told of returning home after the war’s end and of his joy at knowing that his best friend had also returned and of being together again.

The Review, the local Bainbridge paper, an award winning local paper, was renowned and sometimes reviled, for the editorials they published opposing President Roosevelt’s Executive Order 9066, the Order that was the basis for the expulsion of the120,000 Japanese-Americans who were sent to relocation camps.  The Bainbridge Island Japanese-Americans were both the first to be sent to the camps and the last to return home.

Milly and Walt Woodward, owners and editors of The Review, wrote, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, “There is the danger of a blind, wild hysterical hatred of all persons who can trace ancestry to Japan. That some of those persons happen to be American citizens, happen to be loyal to this country and happen to have no longer a binding tie with their fatherland are factors which easily could be swept aside by mob hysteria." The Review.  December 8. 1941

Mary Woodward, daughter of Milly and Walt Woodward, spoke eloquently of her parents, saying, “The beauty of what my parents did was to create an opportunity for dialogue and an atmosphere was created where reasonable people were given an opportunity to be reasonable.”

Islanders were more than reasonable as in known through the stories told that day, of farmers taking care of the farms of others until they could return, of business owners doing the same for their neighbors, of the High School coach who, with one game scheduled during those frightening six days, benched team mates so that all the Japanese-American boys could play the entire last game, and of the empty chairs at the 1942 Bainbridge High School graduation, each one a tribute to a missing student.

Marion Konishi graduated from High School in a Relocation Camp.  She was the class valedictorian.  In her speech she said:  “Sometimes America failed and suffered…Sometimes she made mistakes, great mistakes…Her history is full of errors, but with each mistake she has learned....     Can we, the graduating class of Amache Senior High School, believe that America still means freedom, equality, security, and justice?  Do I believe this?  Do my classmates believe this?   Yes, with all our hearts, because in that faith…in that hope…is my future, and the world’s future.”


August 11, 2011

What Say You? Bainbridge Island Parks, Trails, and Farms



SUSAN CLOKE
Blakely Harbor, photo courtesy of Bainbridge Island Parks District
Columnist, Santa Monica Mirror
 
Working landscapes. Across Puget Sound from Seattle, the City of Bainbridge Island owns five public farms providing sixty acres of land. Farming is part of the heritage of Bainbridge Island and the initiative for the farm properties came from the old time farmers who wanted to pass on a legacy to the next generation. Luckily, this initiative coincided with the growth of the buy local and the organic food movements and so the timing was just right for success.

“We believe having farms close by adds immeasurably to our quality of life: delicious healthy food, beautiful farmscapes, a more vibrant local economy, and a greater degree of sustainability.” --Bainbridge Island Friends of the Farms. friendsofthefarms.org

The public farms are working landscapes which dovetail with the mission of the Bainbridge Island Metro Parks and Recreation District (BIMPRD) “to build a healthy community through effective, sustainable stewardship of the district’s parks and open space, and through the development and delivery of innovative cultural and recreation opportunities.”-- biparks.org

The earliest park on the island is Fort Ward, given to the State of Washington by the military at the close of World War I.  Huge, grass lawns (no watering needed in the northwest) used as picnic and play areas, are bordered by a waterfront trail that parallels the shoreline. A forest of cedars and firs, ferns and blackberries, comprises most of the 137 acres of Fort Ward.

Under development now is Blakely Harbor, a 40-acre park, on the historically important site of Port Blakely Mill, one of the world's largest sawmills in the late 1800s. Healing Hooves Natural Vegetation Management was brought in to use goats to clear invasive weeds at the park site.-- healinghooves.com

An advisory committee made up of citizens, staff, and Bainbridge Island Land Trust members is working on the design proposal for the park. They plan to have three zones within the park. “Zone one is proposed for picnic and beach facilities, boardwalks, a parking area, and a launch for human-powered boats. Zone two for decks, footbridges, wildlife habitat restoration structures, interpretive displays and picnic areas. Zone three is planned to be a protected area with primitive facilities, and may include trails, pathways and interpretive signs.”

Yeomalt Cabin was built in 1935 by the Works Progress Administration and was recently restored. Located in the woods, the cabin is home to arts and cultural programs and performances, the most recent being a fort building camp for young children. Sue Hylen, the Arts and Cultural Manager, said she is inspired by the anonymous quote, “Art isn’t about the art, it’s about finding the creative spirit inside yourself.”

Bainbridge Island, accessed via Washington State Ferry, had a population of 23,025 people at the 2010 census. On the island there are more than 1600 acres of public park land, including forest land, beaches, playgrounds, large grassy expanses for playing soccer and other organized sports and areas for picnicking. The parks are often named for their locations on the island, such as Eagledale, Hidden Cove, and Grand Forest; there are 23 miles of forest trails; an aquatic center with separate areas for tots, water exercises, lessons, water sports, lane swimming and diving; and facilities buildings with cultural, sports, and community activities; all run by the parks district.

Privately run facilities, open to the public, include IslandWood (islandwood.org), a 225+ acre environmental education center with programs and activities for children, teens, and adults. And the Bloedel Reserve (bloedelreserve.org), the legacy of an early island logging family with 150 acres, 84 of which are second growth forest, and then there are sheep meadows, barns, and formal gardens. Concerts in the sheep meadow are not to be missed.

Every six years the park district, through meetings and surveys, asks the residents of Bainbridge Island, “What do you expect from parks and trails and all open space? What is the experience you want to take away from your experience of living/working in the community and how does it relate to your experience of parks and open space?”

According to Perry Barrett, senior planner for the parks district, there is deep support for the parks among Islanders and so, while issues can be contentious, there are certain principles that are consistent.

“The community answer is always: protect our shoreline, our natural forests and our trails, maintain our connection to nature, our connection to the sea, our connection to farming and the land,” said Barrett.

The beauty of the park in Bainbridge is in the quality of the natural environment, the stewardship of the people, the history and the values of the community.

Frederick Law Olmsted, the great American landscape architect wrote in Public Parks and the Enlargement of Towns, Feb. 25, 1870, "The park should, as far as possible, compliment the town. Openness is the one thing you cannot get in buildings. Picturesqueness you can get. Let your buildings be as picturesque as your artists can make them. This is the beauty of a town. Consequently, the beauty of the park should be the other. It should be the beauty of the fields, the meadow, the prairie, of the green pastures, and the still waters. What we want to gain is tranquility and rest to the mind."

What do we want from the parks of Santa Monica?

What Say You?